TEMPLE CITY – A councilwoman indicted on bribery charges has been stripped of her appointment as the adviser to the city’s new Youth Committee.

Mayor Fernando Vizcarra used his mayoral authority to remove Councilwoman Judy Wong from the post, and on Tuesday appointed Councilman Tom Chavez to work with the committee, which will consist of 13 area middle school and high school students.

The committee was created to give students the chance to get involved in civics, such as making recommendations to the council on youth-related issues, officials have said.

Chavez will go to the first meeting, and the position may be rotated on a meeting-to-meeting basis afterward, Vizcarra said.

Before appointing Chavez, Vizcarra said Wong’s earlier appointment had “gotten the attention of a lot of folks … so we need to address it. It’s the elephant in the room.”

Wong has pleaded not guilty to 10 felony charges, including bribery and perjury, stemming from accusations that she accepted bribes in return for support of developer Randy Wang’s $75 million Piazza at Temple City mall project. She faces a maximum sentence of 10 years, 4 months in prison if convicted.

Since her indictment in June, Wong has said she will not resign. A trial could begin early next year, according to prosecutors.

Wong did not return a call for comment Wednesday.

At a Nov. 17 City Council meeting, officials approved the establishment of the youth committee and appointed Wong as its liaison. Wong had volunteered for the position and made the motion herself, which passed without objection.

“It was brought to light that there was some concern about (Wong’s appointment) and I thought that this was the best way to handle those concerns,” Vizcarra said Wednesday. “That’s not to say that she’s excluded from the process, but for now that’s the way I’ll handle it.”

Wong and Councilwoman Cynthia Sternquist said Tuesday they had originally intended for the adviser position to be rotated from meeting to meeting.

“With the youth committee, I am only volunteering to be the liaison for the first meeting,” Wong said.

“Somehow I thought that’s what we had agreed upon, and then I read in the newspaper that we had appointed Judy and that she had volunteered,” Councilwoman Cynthia Sternquist said. “Yes, we did all say yes, so I guess that is an appointment.”

But Vizcarra said it wasn’t made clear at the last meeting how the rotation was supposed to work.

“Cindy mentioned (rotating the position), but then Judy popped in and said, `I’ll volunteer to do that,”‘ Vizcarra said. “So I looked around and I was waiting for one of the other council people to speak up. They didn’t, so then she stayed on as the delegate.”

Councilman Vincent Yu said on Wednesday that a meeting-to-meeting rotation “wasn’t my intention,” and that he supported a six-month rotation instead.

Parks and Recreation Director Cathy Burroughs, who has helped organized the committee’s establishment, also said Tuesday that she had been under the impression that the adviser position “would be rotating from year to year, or six months to six months.”

Chavez was appointed as adviser to the first youth committee meeting because “it was initially Tom’s concept,” Vizcarra said Wednesday. “He’s the logical one, at least, to get the thing started. Anybody else that wants to participate, I’ll let him participate later on.”